A Normal Life
by Alien-Ariel
Summary: Roxanna isn't the Prime Merlinian, but that isn't going to stop her from becoming a great sorceress. However, she never planned for the evil of Morgana to get in the way. Or her inexplicable attraction to Dave Stutler. Dave/OC Movie-based plot
1. The Prime Merlinian

**Ok, this is something I've wanted to do for a while, but I didn't have the movie to look things up (like lines, scene descriptions, order of events, etc). Now that I have it, I can do this story!**

**This chapter's in 3****rd**** person POV, but all the other chapters are going to be my usual 1****st**** person from Roxanna's POV. It's hard to write it any other way. Plot follows the movie, mostly. I might change some events around if I need to.**

**PICTURE OF ROXANNA (grown up) IS ON MY PROFILE! Take a look at it, since I probably won't do anything to describe her personal style in the next chapter, ten years later.**

**Tell me what you think, and enjoy!**

**_Update_: I fixed all the typos I could catch. Sorry for not eliminating them earlier, but I was rushed while typing this up.**

"I'm sorry, dear. It's not you." The man in the trench coat told the ten-year-old girl with the white-blonde hair. She looked from him to the dragon figure in her hand, confused.

"But... did I do something wrong?" The girl asked, her voice quavering.

"Of course not. Don't be upset." The man said, coming out from behind the counter to kneel beside the girl. He took the small figurine from her pale palm to set it back inside its metal box. Her fingers twitched longingly towards the box, as if to reclaim the object which, until she had touched it, filled her with wonder and hope.

The move was not unnoticed by the older man. He diverted his eyes from the girl to think. Eventually he stood and proceeded once more behind the counter, replacing the dragon's box and withdrawing another, perhaps shabbier, container from under the glass. He then came around to stand in front of the girl, whose eyes were wide and curious.

"I can sense potential in you, Roxanna Boklov." The man explained, surprising the girl with the use of her full name, "I would like you to try one more ring for me." He opened the clasp on the box to remove a silver ring. It was plated to look like overlapping scales, with a modest red gem set into it.

Roxanna Boklov took the ring, wonder and fancy once again sparkling in her eyes. Nothing happened, but this was obviously different from the Prime Merlinian's dragon ring, as it was not in the shape of a statue; not to be discouraged, she slipped it onto her right index finger. It fit well, which she took to be a positive sign.

"Go ahead." The man told her, "Try to move something."

Turning around to find something of little value, Roxanna found a small stone etched with runes sitting by itself on an ancient end table. She doubted she could break a rock, which is why she then extended her fingers towards the lone object, her hand shaking slightly.

"Clear your mind." The man instructed her from behind. Roxanna briefly closed her eyes and exhaled in a long, steady stream, allowing a black, blank nothingness to seep into her mind.

"Focus on the object's particles." The man continued. The young girl slowly opened her eyes, her pale eyelids lifting quite sluggishly; but her amber-yellow eyes were sharp. She thought of the vibrating, invisible particles in the stone, just like her father described them to her. Her father, one of the most widely known sorcerers in Russia.

"Move the stone." A voice said from somewhere very far away. In her mind Roxanna was already imagining it hovering a foot above the polished wood of the end table.

Raising her right index finger, Roxanna knew she could do it. The sunlight drifting dreamily through the dusty Arcana Cabana glinted in the red stone of her scaled ring as she thought of nothing else but lifting the particles of the rock. The gem kicked into life and glowed; and as her index finger raised higher and higher from her other outstretched fingers, the stone levitated with it. There it was, floating inexplicably a foot over the table; just as she's imagined.

It was with a grateful sigh and relaxed smile that Roxanna Boklov returned the stone to rest, barely making the slightest scuff as it touched down.

The girl turned around to look imploringly at the mysterious caretaker of the Arcana Cabana, her breaths coming more ragged and excited than previously. The man met her gaze steadily, a hand resting pensively on his chin as he regarded the ten-year-old. He came to kneel in front of her, with the hint of a smile.

"You will become a very powerful sorceress someday, Roxanna Boklov." The man told the breathless girl, "My name is Balthazar Blake, as you doubtlessly already know. I am something of a sorcerer myself, and will use my not insubstantial influence to set you up with a suitable master. In fact, I know one who owes me an outstanding debt. Let me write down his address for you."

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, Mr. Blake." The girl said, nodding frantically and smiling wide enough to show all her pearly teeth, as though words alone could not express her gratitude. She took a slip of paper from him with the address of her new master written carefully on it.

It was just before Balthazar could reply that a yellow piece of paper rushed into the Arcana Cabana through the mail slot. Roxanna's sharp eyes followed the thing as it floated on a nonexistent breeze and came to rest somewhere behind a large collection of assorted knick-knacks and whats-its. Intrigued, she hurried off to retrieve it, not noticing the dark-haired boy her age enter the store.

"Gotcha!" She said, finding it behind a huge stack of books. It was thick construction paper of a dull yellow with some scribbled handwriting on the inside. There was a small X written over the square beside the word "friend". Hearing Balthazar talking to someone, Roxanna peaked around the mountains of ancient valuables to see a boy with a red backpack looking nervous.

"How'd you know my name is Dave?" The boy squeaked.

"Cause I can read minds!" Balthazar said dramatically, and then added, "It's on your backpack." Roxanna giggled as Dave spun in circles, trying to see if it was true. He stopped when he heard Roxanna though, and turned to look at her.

"You're like a dog chasing its tail." She said with another giggle but a sweet look as she approached the boy, "I'm Roxanna Boklov."

"I'm Dave Stutler." He said, with his dopey grin, causing Roxanna to hide a smile behind her hand. There was something she liked about him.

"I know." She replied, taking his hand to lead him over to Balthazar, "I can read minds too."

"Come over here, you two." Balthazar called, before he noticed they were already there, "This is very special, and if it likes you, you can keep it." He told Dave as he opened the dragon ring box again. Roxanna's eyes grew wide.

"Do you really think-" Roxanna started to say, looking between the ring and the boy beside her.

"Hush, dear. Let's just see." Balthazar told the curious girl, "Go on, Dave. Take it."

"I better not." Dave replied, looking a little worried, "My teacher said I shouldn't be gone long, and she knows that I'm here…" I felt his palm start to sweat against mine.

"You're a bad liar, Dave." Balthazar said, with a hint of a smile, "That's good."

"My Daddy always tells me if he catches me in a lie, he'll put on his ring and _banish_ me!" Roxanna said passionately to Dave, who just looked confused and a little scared. With a glance to the doors, she could see how badly he wanted to escape; but they were shutting all on their own, with a quiet click.

"Oh boy." Dave said nervously, staring at the doors. Roxanna tightened her grip on his hand to reassure him. With a quick breath, he finally reached out his hand to take the dragon statue. It sat in the palm of his hand for a moment as Balthazar and Roxanna held their breath. Then it suddenly sprang into life with a shake of its head; it crawled to the other side of his hand and laid across his index finger, the tail wrapping to fit perfectly around it. Folding its wings back along its body was the last move it made before resting once more.

"No way." Dave whispered as Roxanna looked on with a mixture of awe and jealousy playing across her pale face.

"So _that's _what it was supposed to do." She said to herself, "You are so _lucky_!"

"Lucky?" Dave repeated before Roxanna crushed him in a hug.

"I have been searching a very long time." Balthazar said, more to himself than the two ten-year-olds, as he came around from behind the counter, "And in one day, I find a sure to be promising sorceress," He said, resting a hand on Roxanna's shoulder, making her smile widely, "And a _very_ important sorcerer." He continued, putting his other hand on Dave's shoulder, who has a look similar to Roxanna's after she found she could lift the stone from the table. Standing up straight, Balthazar fixed a more serious look on the two.

"And your first lesson begins now, with your very own Incantus. Roxanna, I'm going to call your new master to inform him that you're coming to be his apprentice, whether he likes it or not. Do not touch anything." He said the last sentence specifically to Dave, before disappearing down a flight of spiral steps.

"Can I see the ring?" Roxanna asked once Balthazar was gone. Dave held out his hand to show the curious girl, whose sharp eyes poured over every inch of the fabled ring.

"I have one too." She said, showing him her scaled ring with the red gem set into it.

"We're like Christmas." Dave laughed, noticing the clash of the red on her's to the green stone on his. Roxanna was silent though, looking maybe a little sadly at his ring.

"You really are lucky, you know." She said quietly, "You're special."

"Well, I-I think you're special too." He stuttered earnestly, taking her hand. Roxanna couldn't help but smile at the look on his face, and stood on the tips of her toes to kiss his cheek.

"Whoa." Dave said, with the same goofy smile he'd first given the girl. Raising his ring hand to his cheek, a clunking noise came from across the room.

"Did you hear that?" Roxanna asked, turning to face the room fully.

"Yeah." Dave replied shortly. The girl looked back to him, thinking.

"I think you're moving something with your ring. Move your hand again." She told him, watching for anything that moved in the room.

"There." Dave said, pointing to a spot on the wall that was starting to crumble. With a few more jerks of his hand, something exploded from behind the bricks to land at the children's feet.

"Whoa. What is it?" Dave asked, picking up what looked like a large nesting doll with a well-dressed man in furs and a fedora painted on one side. But before Roxanna could even guess, the doll had split in two around its middle and laid, open, once more on the ground. She screamed as all sorts of unpleasant bugs started to crawl from out of the doll.

"Roxanna, get away from it!" Dave yelled as the mass of insects start to take the form of a person. He pulled her back behind him with a worried expression.

"This isn't good." Roxanna whispered, wishing Balthazar would hurry back. Finally, the figure stabilized in the form of the man painted on the shell of the doll.

"When am I?" The man asked, glaring down at the children.

"Uh, New York City." Dave replied, standing his ground despite sounding a little afraid.

"Not _where_." The man snarled in his clipped British accent, "The _year_."

"That's really not good." Roxanna muttered, pulling Dave farther back.

"You are wasting my time." The man said as a blue stone in the top of his walking stick started to glow. Before Roxanna could tell Dave this man was a sorcerer, and probably not a nice one, the stranger was sent hurtling up towards the glass ceiling and pinned there.

"_What happened_ to 'don't touch anything', kids?" Balthazar asked them as he entered the room, one hand held above his head in the direction of the stranger while the other had a huge, ancient looking book balanced on its palm. He proceeded to tell us not to worry, that he'd explain later, and to ask where the Grimhold was. Dave pointed to the nesting doll at his feet, assuming that's what he meant.

"Sir, look out!" Roxanna yelled as she noticed the other sorcerer sending a spell directly towards him. Balthazar was sent careening into an armoire full of antiques, and the other immediately started to fall from the ceiling.

"Dave, back here." Roxanna whispered urgently as the two sorcerers engaged in combat. She pulled him behind the counter and down to the floor, hoping they'd be safer there. The Grimhold skittered and slid across the floor as the fight intensified. Eventually it was kicked directly to Dave, who picked it up to examine a new painting on the next shell.

"Where are the halves of the first shell?" Roxanna yelled over the fight. There would be no trapping the man in the furs again without both halves.

"There's one!" Dave said, pointing to the ground between the two sorcerers. Balthazar was sword-fighting with thin air as the other man controlled the weapon from ten feet away.

"What a coward." Roxanna growled deep in her throat, moving from beside Dave to retrieve the half of the shell. A she moved, she upset a tube of some unknown, yellowing liquid which was balanced precariously on the counter above them; it tumbled to the floor and crashed against Dave's lap. He yelled in alarm and pulled Roxanna back by her hand.

"Don't go out there." He said as she noticed the stain on his pants.

"Oh no, Dave are you hurt?" She asked him over the crackling of a plasma bolt in the background.

"No, I'm fine; it's just… _something._ It's alright." Dave replied, not sure what it was that had soaked through his khakis, "But you can't just walk into that fight! We have to leave!"

"But what about Mr. Blake?" Roxanna asked, looking back to the fight and feeling deeply conflicted. Fires were now spreading throughout the store, engulfing the antiques and burning everything up like it was kindling.

"We have to go." Dave repeated steadily, taking her hand and crawling towards the front door, the Grimhold under his arm. The two children got as far as the threshold before feeling hateful eyes on them. Turning slowly, they saw the evil sorcerer staring them down, a wall of flames as his backdrop.

"I want that doll." He said dangerously, extending a finger tipped in fire towards them. Before Dave had to decide what choice to make, Balthazar leapt through the flames and tackled the evil sorcerer to the ground.

Taking the opportunity to scramble away, the children made another break for the door. Roxanna's arm jerked back quickly and nearly popped out of its socket, making her cry out in pain, as Dave's legs were caught by the sorcerer and were pulled back farther into Arcana Cabana.

"Dave!" Roxanna yelled, trying to pull him back to her. The evil sorcerer lost his grip on Dave's backpack as it unzipped itself. With another heave, he landed in a heap beside her and watched as some of his school papers were sucked inside a giant urn.

"Kids, leave!" They distantly heard Balthazar tell them as he and the other man started to get sucked in as well, "Leave now!" They disappeared into ash as the children followed his directions and ran into the light of day. Dave flung the Grimhold away from him as Roxanna covered her face and tried not to cry.

"David Stutler!" An older lady yelled before Dave started to expound upon her all that had went on in Arcana Cabana.

"No, don't go in there!" Dave tried to tell her as the lady, probably the teacher he'd talked about earlier, entered the store. Roxanna found herself following them as Dave dragged her up the steps. To her amazement, the store was exactly as it was before all that madness happened, with the exception of Balthazar. Where was the urn? Where had all the fire gone? How had everything just went back to normal?

"You really shouldn't tell stories. Let's go." The lady said huffily, pushing Dave ahead of her. Roxanna followed along again, too afraid to let go of her new friend. At the moment, keeping direct contact with Dave seemed to be a matter of life and death, "And who are you?" Roxanna didn't have time to answer the angry woman before the other children gathered around the steps took notice of her as well.

"Ooh, David's got a girlfriend." Someone called, making all the other students whisper to each other.

"Look, he's so excited a girl likes a geek like him that he peed his pants!" A more mean-spirited child yelled, causing everyone else to laugh cruelly. Roxanna couldn't concentrate enough to understand what was happening, but the taunting laughter was enough to make her lose control and start crying.

"Hey, leave her alone!" Dave tried to shout, pulling Roxanna closer to him, but he sounded weak and upset himself from the teasing he'd received.

"Where are your parents? Are they inside?" The lady asked Roxanna softly, ignoring her students. The mention of Arcana Cabana just made her cry harder.

"R-R-Russia." She choked out, not thinking to tell the woman about her escorts in the hotel at the end of the block waiting for her to return if she turned out not to be the Prime Merlinian, which she certainly wasn't.

The lady must have thought her to be alone in the city, or simply lost, by not knowing this certain information Roxanna was too upset to mention; so she let Roxanna walk with the group until they found a police station not far away from where their bus was parked.

"You'll be safe here, dear, but you have to let go of David now. He has to get back to school." She told the crying girl, who just looked confused.

"But-" She started, before having her hand removed from Dave's by his teacher, "No!" She screeched, not emotionally stable enough to be parted yet. There was something about Dave Stutler, the Prime Merlinian, which made her want to stay with him. It was some strange sixth sense she felt deep in her subconscious. She felt strong hands grip her shoulders as a police officer steered her inside.

"Don't worry, Roxanna. I'll find you, and we'll practice magic together!" Dave called as he was shuttled onto the school bus, "I promise." He yelled out the window as she disappeared inside the building, ignoring the laughs and disturbed looks from his peers.

* * *

Roxanna had sat patiently in the cold, hard chair for several hours while the detective behind the desk in front of her tried to find where her parents were. Well that was a useless endeavor, as Roxanna already knew where _they _were, and that any normal humans would have a hard time indeed to locate a sorcerer such as her father; he kept her mother, her older brother Yurick, and, before she came here, Roxanna herself very much a secret from the normal world. She had grown up only around her family and other sorcerers and sorceresses. When her father had heard rumors milling around the magic community about the famous, powerful Balthazar Blake conducting a search for the Prime Merlinian, he had sent Roxanna to New York City with a host of escorts to be tested.

However, on arrival she was warned to come alone to Arcana Cabana for her test by Mr. Blake. He had apparently grown wary of strangers in his many years of hardships, and agreed to see Roxanna only on this condition. Not about to make the long trip for nothing, Roxanna's escorts rented a room in a hotel at the end of the block. If she returned by three in the afternoon, she would fly back to Russia with her escorts, and probably to the disappointment of her father. If she missed this appointment, it would be understood that she was the Prime Merlinian and had begun her apprenticeship under Balthazar.

Well, Roxanna had missed her three o'clock deadline by several hours now, but for a reason very different than what her escorts would tell her surely ecstatic father. She could just imagine his pride… and how quickly it would fade if she returned now to tell him otherwise. No, she would train under this new master Mr. Blake had set up for her, and return home only when she was as strong as she could be. Maybe her father would be less offended by her failure if he saw how hard she had worked to become great.

The slip of paper containing her master's address was burning a hole in her pocket now. She finally found her chance to sneak away when the detective fruitlessly trying to locate any of her relatives left to take a phone call up front. Passing through several doors, and ducking low to avoid detection, Roxanna soon found herself out in an alley. Thankfully she had a map of the city, and, after finding her current location on it as well as the address to her master's training warehouse, she was off to prove herself.


	2. Reunion

**Ok, here's chapter 2! Sorry it's short in comparison, but the first chapter was wayyy longer than I usually make my chapters. I probably could have made it into two, but for the sake of a prologue I didn't. However, this one is still a little short in terms of normal chapter length. So expect something between the two for chapter 3.**

**Much thanks to kenobigirlliz for your review! I'm glad you like it so far.**

**And sorry for any typos. I've been rushed typing my stories recently. I'll proofread it after my classes today.**

**Oh, and prepare thyself for a Star Wars allusion. haha**

**Tell me what you think, and enjoy!**

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**TEN YEARS LATER**

**TO THE DAY**

I folded and unfolded my Incantus simply to give my hands something to do. I was afraid I might cast some spell just for the need to do something, anything. It was getting harder and harder to control the hate inside me as I walked blindly along the streets of New York City. How did this happen? Why did this happen? Why couldn't I stop it from happening?

Fire flashed through my mind as I briefly closed my eyes and stopped walking. Some ridiculously dressed and mediocre Morganian had killed my brilliant master. And he made it look so easy too; he killed the man I'd never once been able to defeat over ten years of sparring, except for our last match last night. I guess that was my last gift from a man I'd come to know as a second father. And what he'd said, right before he was murdered...

_If you strike me down, I will only become more powerful in her mind._

And the Morganian with the two-toned hair had ignored him, ending his life with a single plasma bolt. I had escaped through a secret exit out of the training warehouse only my master and I knew about. I had escaped into a world I now felt I did not know how to control, or where I belonged in it. So I walked anywhere my feet took me.

My memory of what I just witnessed a few hours previously was cut off by someone running into me and cursing, telling me to go be in someone else's way. Glancing around, I noticed that I had taken myself to a busy subway station. Everywhere I looked people jostled past one another, everyone different and unique from the others. But my dead eyes only saw a giant mass of nothingness; none of these people meant anything, none of them contributed to anything in this world.

A moment after I scolded myself for such thoughts. My master would be ashamed of me for thinking like a Morganian; and indeed as I realized my mistake, I began to see the world once more in the way I always had. These people all had something special to give, and they had to be protected from evil; I couldn't ever let myself forget that.

"Everyone has a purpose." I said aloud, quoting my master. He'd certainly drilled that into my head over ten years. And I had to remember that always, now that he was gone.

Suddenly, something stirred inside me. A sort of sixth-sense stirring, deep down in my subconscious, recognizable only as a feeling that I should get on the next train and ride it as far as I could. Deciding to trust myself, I boarded the subway. As it turns out, the end of the line was only a few stops away. I exited onto the platform with everyone else, even though the stirring told me to keep going. I waited for my chance, then quickly jumped onto the track and continued in the same direction. I ignored the sign on the blockade a ways down that said "TURNAROUND CLOSED. DO NOT ENTER".

"She will remember me?" I heard a sarcastic voice carry down the tunnel to me very quietly, "Who are you, Braveheart?" I wondered if this allusion was even correct as I found a metal door set into what looked like a fairly new and sloppily constructed brick wall; it was probably done quickly to block off whatever was in the turnaround.

"Bennet, I blew my shot at getting this girl ten years ago and I can't do it again." Another voice replied as I checked the door handle. Locked. I guess I'll just have to make my own entrance. The same voice said something else as I decided to simply ghost through it, instead of blasting through the wall. I distantly heard music, along with a snapping and crackling noise as I cleared my mind.

Finally stepping through the wall, I felt the hairs on my arms stand straight up. I opened my eyes just in time to catch a bolt of blue lightning that was hurtling towards me with my right hand. I heard someone yell in alarm, followed by the source of the lightning being powered down. Struggling to keep what I had caught under control, I felt my energy dissipating. I finally had to let it fly into the ceiling, where it struck the bricks and left a decent hole. Then I blacked out.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God." I heard a voice say, sounding far away. I felt someone moving me into a sitting position as I attempted to beat away the sluggish, murky depths of unconsciousness. Finally being able to open my eyes, I found myself being worried over by a frantic looking, dark-haired boy my age. I also noted that the stirring inside me gave one last little jolt before subsiding.

"Oh you're awake, oh thank God." He said quickly, covering his face and muttering incoherently some more into his hands.

"What happened?" I asked sleepily once my voice started to return, "Where did that lightning come from?"

"Uh, from-from my Tesla coils." The boy explained, looking a little embarrassed, "But that's not important. Are you hurt?" He asked slowly.

"Only momentarily." I grunted, trying to stand. My legs weren't ready yet, and the pins-and-needles pain exploding through them now sent me stumbling against the boy for support.

"I'm sorry." I said into his flannel shirt, "I guess I'm not quite ready to stand yet."

"You're sorry? _I'm _sorry!" He said, half-dragging and half-carrying me to a chair and setting me down gently, "I could have _killed_ you." He paused for a moment, thinking over what he'd said, "Come to think of it, that _should_ have killed you. I mean, not that I want you dead or anything horrible like that, you seem like an agreeable enough person and-"

"It's alright, I get what you meant." I cut him off, with a little laugh and a smile. He gave me this dopey grin. It dropped once he started to think again.

"You, just... _caught_ it." He continued, making my smile drop too, "How did you do that?"

"If I told you I'd have to kill _you_." I said, two parts serious, one part teasing. I don't think he picked up on it though, because he suddenly looked nervous.

"Well, you wouldn't want to try anything like that. Because, my friend, you see, is just outside waiting for me-"

"You're a bad liar, Dave." I said without thinking. Both of us stopped to stare at the other.

"How'd you know my name is Dave?" He asked me slowly, with a glimmer of understanding gracing his tone.

"Because I can read minds." I finished, my mouth breaking into a huge, disbelieving grin, "You're Dave Stutler!"

"Roxanna." Dave said, sounding like he couldn't believe it either, "No wonder you aren't dead! You caught that lightning… with magic." He said the last two words slowly, like he felt stupid saying them. I didn't notice in my excitement to see him again.

"Lightning is first 100 degree stuff." I said nonchalantly; passing lightning off as baby stuff was a common sorcerering joke. However, Dave didn't seem to understand me.

"Degree? Like, Fahrenheit and Celsius, or like- _college_ degrees?" He had this cute little quizzical eyebrow thing going on. But I turned away from his face to look at his hand. I didn't see the dragon ring.

"Whoa, Roxanna, careful." Dave complained as I roughly grabbed his hand and brought it close to my face to examine his index finger more closely. There were no callouses or burns or cuts to indicate the usual presence of a magic-focusing ring on any of his fingers.

"You don't wear the ring." I said blankly, turning confused eyes to him, "Why don't you wear it?"

"Well see, it turns out all that was just a glucose imbalance…" Dave tried to say, but stopped at the look on my face.

"You haven't been trained." I whispered with horror. Him, the Prime Merlinian, and he's gone and wasted ten precious years of training under a master…

"Oh God, the urn!" I said, slapping a hand over my forehead, "Balthazar. He hasn't been here to train you." I tried to stand again, but my legs still weren't working well enough. I was still too drained. Dave caught me again before I hit the ground.

"No, no, no. This isn't happening again." Dave mumbled over and over, like a mantra.

"And _Horvath_!" I emphasized, looking into his face and shaking him to get him to focus on what I was saying, "He'll be coming for you. I'll have to protect you until Balthazar finds us."


	3. All of It

**Not much to say. Things are going very well with my writing, and this story is evidence to that.**

**Thanks much to Mew of Fire, and kenobigirlliz again for their reviews! You guys rock, and I'm glad you like my story.**

**Tell me what you think, and enjoy!**

I had kept Dave in the unused subway turnaround for as long as I could, but eventually him complaining about needing to go home and sleep because he had to wake up early again and some other uselessness, convinced me it was indeed time to leave.

"You baby, it's only 9 o'clock!" I told him as we walked the short distance to the apartment he and his friend Bennet recently rented.

"Is it really?" He asked me, straining his neck to read my watch.

"Yes." I confirmed for him, "Hopefully Balthazar breaks free of the urn soon, so _I _don't have to stay awake all night watching _you_."

"I have a feeling even if I tell you that you aren't allowed in, you'll find your own way." Dave said nervously at the look of displeasure on my face.

"Very perceptive of you." I replied shortly, but gave him a smile. We arrived at his apartment and Dave fumbled with the lock to his door. I waved my hand over it impatiently, and the door clicked open.

"Sorry." I said with a shrug to the look he gave me, "Now get your ass inside. We'll be safer there."

"Alright, alright." He whined as I shoved him through the doorframe, "You're pushier than I remember."

"I'm just worried." I told him apologetically as he placed his backpack on the floor with his keys.

"As you should be." I heard a monotone British voice say from a shadow in the kitchen, "I have recently been released from a ten year sentence and I am not going to waste any time now that I am out."

"Horvath." I said in a clipped voice, standing between him and Dave.

"I don't have time for pleasantries and greetings, girl." Horvath replied, staring me down with a measured amount of malice and ill will.

"Well good, because as it so happens, we've met before." I replied icily, trying to buy us time to find a means of escape.

"Irrelevant." He replied, nixing that plan and cutting right to the chase, "Where is the Grimhold? You had it last and I want it _back_."

"Listen, I-I threw it in the street." Dave said hurriedly. I slapped a hand over my face, because I could tell he wasn't lying. Now Horvath would simply kill us.

"Where's the Grimhold?" Horvath pursued; apparently he didn't know that Dave was a terrible liar. He stood to his full height, casting a menacing shadow along the floor.

"That was a long time ago. I don't actually know _where_ it is!" Dave tried to reason as I slowly pushed him back towards the door. Horvath wasn't concerned with that though.

"I'll just have to cut the truth out of you." He said in low, dangerous tones as a knife flew into his hand. Thinking quickly, I focused on the molecules in the knife and forced them to vibrate faster. Horvath yelled in surprise as the now scalding metal scorched his hand.

"Run, Dave." I said while Horvath was distracted. I turned only momentarily when I heard a thud to see Dave picking himself off the floor.

"Open the door first, hun." I sighed as I grabbed his hand and ghosted us through it, "Until you learn to do that. Now, quick, down the- what now?" I groaned as a shock of blue light shone under the crack of his door. A moment later Horvath was opening it for a pack of wolves.

"Wolves?" Dave asked in a tone that told me his throat was closing up in anxiety.

"He's got style." I admitted, "But don't worry, I do too." I made a doe-illusion rise up from the floorboards as I said this. The doe hurried in the direction opposite ours, and two members of the pack hastened after it.

"That'll help." I said to myself as we exited back onto the sidewalk.

"Come on, up here." Dave said, climbing the stairs up to the raised train tracks. Thankfully his card worked on the second swipe and we both got through the turnstile unharmed, the wolves growling and snapping their teeth at us threateningly.

"Now what?" I asked, not knowing where we were or where to go.

"Aaah, _here_! Over here. We'll hide." Dave said, pulling me after him down onto the tracks. Seconds later a door opened and the wolves, along with Horvath, entered the station. Another second later and we were found.

"Kill them." Horvath commanded the pack nonchalantly. Typical.

"And now we run." I yelled, leading him farther down the tracks. I felt myself falling when Dave lost his balance; I ignored the pain from faceplanting into hard metal and instead turned around to face the situation head-on. The wolves were gaining, we didn't have enough time to stand and run again, and fear was blocking my ability to clear my mind. Not that any spells were coming to me anyway. I closed my eyes tight as they pounced towards us, but an attack never came.

"Puppies?" Dave said aloud in disbelief.

"_I_ didn't do that." I said, opening my eyes and picking up a black and white one, feeling ashamed of my own failure to control my fear.

"What is _that_?" Dave asked, sounding alarmed again. I followed his gaze and saw a giant metal eagle standing not ten feet from us on the tracks.

"Balthazar!" I called in relief while struggling to keep the puppy in my arms, "Thank _God_." I sighed, fully exhausted of this job already.

"Where's the doll, kids?" He asked us firstly from atop the eagle's back.

"Uh- _him_! Him, him, him!" Dave stuttered, pointing to Horvath, who had recovered from being knocked over by the eagle and was righting himself. Balthazar encased him in a bubble of slow-time right as a plasma bolt erupted from his walking stick.

"Get up here now! Hurry." He said to us as a train started to enter the station, "Distract the conductor." He told me as Dave clambered onto the eagle's back. I forced the window on the front of the train to fog up with condensation, so the conductor wouldn't notice us as we flew away. Then Dave helped me up onto the eagle as well.

I held onto the closest solid object as we took off. My eyes were once again squeezed tight so I wouldn't have to see how high off the ground we were. The light wind whipped my hair around me, which made me extremely nervous.

"Roxanna, you're gonna cut of the circulation to my arm if you don't loosen your grip." I heard Dave say over the rushing in my ears. I guess the closest solid object was him.

"Is it your right arm?" I asked him, still refusing to open my eyes.

"No…?" Dave replied, sounding confused.

"Good, you don't need your left arm." I said, holding on just as tightly as before. I buried my face into his shoulder as the wind picked up, whimpering.

"I don't think it's for you to decide what limbs I get to keep and which ones I don't!" Dave tried to sound agitated, but I think me looking so pathetic made it harder for him.

"It's a joke, Dave." I heard Balthazar explain to him for me, "You use your right hand to hold your ring." I heard Dave make a small noise of understanding as the eagle shifted underneath me. I screamed and clinged to Dave's arm harder.

"Don't worry, we're just landing." Balthazar told me, patting my back.

"Come here, Roxanna." Dave said, helping me slide off the eagle before it situated itself back along the side of the building. I gave it a loathing glance.

"Are... are you afraid of heights?" He asked me with a little smirk.

"Flying." I replied with a sigh, glancing over the railing to the street below, "I actually like heights. I hate flying... and the wind." I muttered the last part, feeling very foolish.

"Why'd you bring the dog?" I heard behind me. Glancing down to the terrified black and white puppy and then up to Balthazar, I gave him a happy little look.

"Because I'm going to keep it. I could use a pet." I said proudly, "And I'm going to name him Roscoe."

"After your master?" Balthazar asked me, making my smile drop, "Is he going to accept this pet of yours?"

"My master is dead." I said blankly, turning to look out over the city.

"I know." He admitted after a moment.

"You knew? How?" I demanded, turning back to him.

"If he wasn't, he would be here right now, not you. He would have been the one protecting Dave." Balthazar explained not unkindly while fixing me with a look I'd label sympathetic.

"Yeah, and a great job I did at that." I scoffed, trying to detract from the tears building on my eyelashes.

"Well, I'm not dead, am I? I mean, not _yet _at least." I heard Dave say. This actually made me feel better.

"Now." Balthazar said, getting back to business with Dave and maybe also giving me a chance to get my emotions under control. He continued to explain the mechanisms and uses for the Grimhold, and why Horvath couldn't be allowed to have it. And also why Dave had to help it get it back and start his training. However, Dave wasm't having any of it.

"I just want to be normal. I wanna forget about that day at Arcana Cabana. I wanna forget about magic. I wanna forget about _everything_." Dave said sorrowfully, getting my attention.

"You want to forget about all that?" I asked him softly. He gave me a look like he'd also forgotten I was there.

"Yes, _all _of it." Dave confirmed. I felt myself glaring lightly at him.

"So I should just leave then?" I said icily, "I mean, _I'm _a part of '_everything_'." I said, trying to keep my voice from breaking and making sarcastic little quotation marks with my hands, "So I should just leave."

"Roxanna, you know that's not what I meant." Dave tried to pacify me.

"Are you sure? Because what I heard were the words '_all_ of it'." I continued brutally. Dave had run out of words, and was just looking at me unhappily.

"You two should duck." Balthazar broke the silence. Obeying immediately, I saw what looked like a dresser zoom over my head. It landed beside us with the force of a missile.

"You want to forget _magic_?" Balthazar asked, his tone cutting, as he reached into a drawer and pulled something out, "Then why'd you keep the ring?"

"I- was gonna... sell that on eBay." Dave tried to lie. I suddenly felt much better. He hadn't actually meant what he'd said; why else would he keep the symbol of that day's insanity? Those were probably the best lies he had ever, or would ever, tell.

"You're the last person Horvath saw with the Grimhold, so that puts you on his list." Balthazar said, "So unless you want him to turn you into a pig that just _loves_ physics, then you better help me _find_ that doll before he does. You'll be defenseless if he finds you again, too. Because I doubt Ms. Boklov over there is going to protect you anymore after what you just said about her."

"She knows I didn't mean any of that!" Dave argued, gesturing towards me, and sounding very tired of this mistake in wording, "Right, Roxanna?" I just shrugged slowly and kept my mouth shut. Balthazar was using Dave's guilt to get him to join in, and I wasn't about to work against that. He wouldn't be able to resist the training after getting a taste of what he could do, which is exactly what we needed.

"Alright, how about this." Balthazar continued, pretending to back off to give Dave the illusion he had the upper hand, "You help me get it back and you're done. You can walk away from 'all of it'." He added, with a glance in my direction. I tried to look hurt and vulnerable when Dave also looked over to me. And that cinched it.

"Fine." Dave said with a nod to Balthazar, "But can you please put my dresser back?"


End file.
